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Update: Competition put Roth Steel out of business, worker says

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A worker operates a machine that processes copper scraps at Roth Steel Corp. in Syracuse in 2006. The company closed Thursday after more than a century in business.
(Dick Blume | dblume@syracuse.com, 2006)

Syracuse, N.Y. — Officials at Roth Steel Corp. laid off all of the company's 33 employees Thursday, telling them the scrap metal recycler could not make enough money to continue operating.

One of the employees who was laid off said a price war with the Ben Weitsman of Syracuse scrap yard in Solvay killed Roth Steel, which operated for more than a century.

"They were just not making enough money to keep it open," said the former worker, who requested anonymity.

The workers were called together and told of the closing at about 2:30 p.m. There are no plans to reopen the facility, and workers were given no severance pay, the former worker said.

The former employee said the company scrap yard on Hiawatha Boulevard West has been up for sale for some time and that at least one potential buyer was interested. However, no sale could go through pending resolution of environmental issues at the facility, the former worker said.

Roth Steel has had environmental problems before. In 2008, the company paid a $150,000 fine to settle serious environmental violation charges by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The charges spanned from the 1990s through the fall of 2006 and included improperly disposing of solid waste and hazardous substances, failing to control storm water runoff and failing to prevent petroleum discharges.